The National Park Service has announce a 'phased reopening' beginning May 27, as Colorado's Safer at Home, which limits recreational travel to within ten miles of home, expires May 26.

'In accordance with guidance from the White House, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), state and local public health authorities, Rocky Mountain National Park plans to increase recreational access and services on May 27,' the National Park Service said in a press release.

The reason the park closed, much like with ski areas, is that the risk of spreading infection comes not from recreating outdoors, but from of out-of-town visitors coming into the Estes Park community near the park.

Just minutes outside of Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park can attract thousands of visitors in one weekend, Summit Daily reported. In recent years, the park has become one of the nation's most-popular destinations.

In 2018, over four million people visited, and in that same year, Rocky Mountain National Park moved from fourth to third for most-popular national park in the United States, surpassing Zion. That makes it almost as visited as the Grand Canyon. With that volume of visitors, the park's popularity poses a risk to the surrounding community of Estes Park when people stop for food, gas, etc.